South East Water chair resigns after critical report

the chair of south east water, chris train, resigned on friday after a parliamentary report called the company's leadership an "unaccountable clique." the report followed major supply outages that left tens of thousands of homes without drinking water. 24,000 customers in kent and east sussex faced disruption in november and december. weeks later, up to 30,000 households had days of water chaos. a cross-party group of mps said they had no confidence in ceo david hinton and the board. the environment, food and rural affairs committee called it an "unusual but necessary step" because sew appeared "shielded from the consequences of its incompetence." sew said it plans to double investment in its network over five years. bills rose 7% from april to an average of £324. ofwat is consulting on a proposed fine of up to £22.46m over the tunbridge wells incident. mp mike martin called sew "a clear and present danger to public health."